Logical explanation

Saturday

Dec 27, 2008 at 8:00 AM

Recently your newspaper ran a story with photos about a strange wheel-in-the-sky phenomenon. Here is the reality of it. If anyone is familiar with meteor-impact craters -- and I’m sure few are -- then they’d recognize the “wheel” phenomenon for what it is -- a meteor impact with upper-level ice crystals in our atmosphere. Whenever meteors (traveling at up to 10 miles per second) collide with an object of density -- be it the ground, the moon or even ice crystals -- the result is an impact crater. A meteor traveling at such speeds forms a shock wave in front of it and in this case, the shock wave blew a crater-like formation in the upper-atmosphere ice crystals. Very basic -- no UFOs, nor message from God, nor airplane collision (they don’t fly at those altitudes). So everyone rest easy. The Earth may stand still on the movie screen, but not in reality.Walter SarratKentwood

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.